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Contact: Donna Mancuso
Public Affairs Manager
(732) 499-6118
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For Immediate Release:
August 29, 2007
Hospital Opens Expanded Center for Cardiac,
Pulmonary Rehabilitation
RAHWAY – Heart attack survivors or those with chronic lung problems can improve strength and function at the expanded Nicholas Quadrel Healthy Heart Center for Cardio-Pulmonary Rehabilitation at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway.
The Quadrel Center, located on the hospital’s second floor, offers cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation in an upbeat environment that is more than four times the size of the third floor center it replaces. In addition to a new look and more space, the center also has a kitchen to help participants learn healthy meal preparation.
“Cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation have been shown to improve function and quality of life,” said hospital president Kirk Tice. “Now we have a larger, more inviting space that will allow us to help more members of our community.”
A medically supervised program of exercise, nutritional education, smoking cessation counseling and support, cardiac rehab is for those who have had a heart attack or bypass surgery. Studies have shown that it significantly reduces the risk of new cardiac events and complications.
Robert Wood Johnson’s cardiac rehab program was launched in 1988 with the support of cardiologist Michael Chen, MD, and Nicholas Quadrel, a member of the hospital’s board of governors and a founder of the Rahway branch of the American Heart Association. It was named posthumously in 1993. Dr. Chen remains the center’s medical director.
Pulmonary rehabilitation joined the center last year. The program of supervised exercise, nutritional counseling and smoking cessation has been shown to improve lung function for those with emphysema, chronic asthma, and pulmonary fibrosis. That program grew so popular it quickly outgrew its space.
The cardiac rehabilitation program runs for an hour, three times a week for 36 sessions. The Quadrel Center has become so popular that many stay on well past the 36 sessions. Each year the center celebrates its anniversary by honoring cardiac rehab “graduates,” as well as those who have completed 500 and 1,000 hours of rehabilitation. This year, some 40 people graduated the program, with four area men completing 1,000 hours. In the past ten years, more than a dozen people have completed over 1,000 hours of cardiac rehabilitation.
Since its inception, Mr. Quadrel and his wife, Catherine, have supported the Healthy Heart Center. Mrs. Quadrel has generously underwritten the center’s expansion and renovation. The center has also received equipment donations from grateful participants.
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